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Student who drowned in River Ouse call for safety improvements as her funeral is held

FRIENDS of York student Megan Roberts, who died in the River Ouse following a night out, have called for action to try and prevent further deaths.

Kim Lancaster, Amber Corney and Bethanie Robinson are Fine Arts students at York St John University, as was Megan, whose body was found on Sunday, March 2, several weeks after she went missing.

Kim, 19, has started an online petition calling for new safety measures or CCTV cameras along the river, and said they hope to get 3,000 signatures.

She said they would help raise funds to cover the costs but felt "it shouldn't have to come to that".

The petition has so far attracted more than 1,800 names.

She said Megan's death was devastating.

"All we can do now is take what's happened and try to make it into something good, and try to save someone else's life."

Bethanie, 20, said: "We know you can't prevent it but it would mean we would have found her earlier.

"The last thing we want is for everything to die down and the council to just forget about it. We think fences and barriers would mean it would never have happened."

As the search for another missing person, Ben Clarkson, continues in York, Amber, 21, said: "It's not because someone's taken her, it's because of the river. The river might look nice because it hasn't got a barrier alongside it, but at what cost?

A City of York Council spokeswoman said the authority was one of a number of organisations with responsibility for riverside safety, and they would continue to try and prevent river-related incidents.

To sign the petition go to ipetitions.com.

A private funeral was held for Megan Roberts today (Thursday) in Wetherby. Her family asked for privacy.